The Review phase is used to take a big-picture look at the project, quickly answering the question, from multiple angles:

What can I learn from this project that will help me be more effective at my future project work?Review simply gives you the space to stand back a bit from the day-to-day chaos of a project to look from beginning to end at the choices you made that either influenced the success of the project or added to the chaos and rework. Review can take a full day or a few minutes, depending on your personal situation. It is very rarely done, which explains why project management as practiced in the real world doesn’t seem to get much better, and why there is very little “new” material about project management.How you approach projects from the start predicts whether you’ll be open to thinking about how they went. If you approach projects thinking you will control them, you may avoid doing a review because of your feelings of failure. If you approach projects thinking that insanity will happen that must be managed, you will be more likely to take a minute to learn and internalize.The larger the project and the more cross-functional it is, the more important it is to do a review. Such projects are also more difficult because the value comes from sharing the perspectives of all the diverse stakeholders. The most powerful reviews I have been part of have come from these larger projects. Some of the lessons learned included simple actionable ideas such as: ... Continue ReadingPurchase your signed copy of Managing ProjectsJoin us for our Virtual Book Signing on June 5th!Be part of the FIRST Managing Projects Web Series